Hey everyone! I back with the new chapter hehe! I don't have anything to say except we hit 700+ reads! OMGGGG! SO CLOSE TO 1K! I HOPE I REACH IT SOON OMG! huuu..calm down. Anyways! I'll see you guys next week! Bye! Things are getting better I swear. Bye bye! I'll let you guys read now! Byeee!
Previously,
"He just told me the gist of it. Though it doesn't make any sense." She muttered being serious now. The 'aura' that Seong Seop mentioned wasn't actually true. Things weren't clear in between them.
What exactly happened?
"Ji Ae-" Yeong Hyun started but Ji Ae's voice stopped him.
"Do you remember how you slowly drifted away from me? First, you would avoid my eye contact. Second, you used to pretend you didn't see me. Third, when I came to talk to you, you said you had to go somewhere urgently but I found out that you were just going to hang out with your friends." She took a deep breath and continued, "Fourth, I hate to remember it but when you saw me outside once, and someone asked you who I was, and then you replied, 'Ah, someone I know.' I then realised that you didn't want to talk to me. And then finally you disappeared from my eyesight, you went for training, I guess." Yu Ah who was with her when she went all through this could see how hurt she was. Ji Ae acted like it was okay but she clearly wasn't. Who would be okay if their close friend from childhood days stop talking to you abruptly? Ji Ae was overcome with insecurities and no confidence. She decided to not fret about it soon to not make Yu Ah and her dad worry about. Yu Ah squeezed Ji Ae's hand, rubbing circles. Yeon Joon, Ha Sang, Seong Seop were already expecting something like this from her, but this was more that what they thought. Bo Young's eyes softened as she saw her but her eyes turned to Yeong Hyun which were filled with anger. But as soon as she saw Yeong Hyun, her anger filled eyes disappeared. Anybody could see that Yeong Hyun's face showed nothing but regret and guilt, he looked at her with only sorry filled eyes.
She continued, "One day, suddenly, you started to wave at me and smile at me like how strangers try to get new friends, that moment I felt like I was dreaming. But I don't know if you realised but when when you did that, I was scared. I was scared thinking what if you leave me again and we remain as strangers, again. What if I get close to you and you stop talking to me again? What if I was the reason you stopped talking? I kept getting thoughts like these, even worser." She said tears filling her eyes. Throwing her head back to stop the tears falling down, she scoffed and added, "Ah, this brings memories. Why am I crying for this?" The guys looked embarrassed and guilty too.
"Then, now, you've been making efforts to hang out more and catching up and we're again back to how we were before. At least that's what I think. Now, after talking about all this, the reason you told doesn't make sense at all. Not even one percent." Ji Ae switched her gaze from the ground to Yeong Hyun.
"I'm really sorry, Ji Ae." Yeong Hyun apologised.
"What was the reason?" Yu Ah asked, glaring at him.
"He said it's because of his mom."
"Hey, does that make any sense? Why would your mom be-" Yu Ah was interrupted by Yeong Hyun.
"It's the truth. She even wanted me to be someone I didn't want to be and I followed that. How can she not tell me to stop talking to her?" Yeong Hyun confessed.
He continued, "I think you misunderstood that I started to avoid you after hanging out with these guys but that's not true. Do you remember when exactly I stopped talking to you?" Yeong Hyun shot her question. "From last half of eighth grade." Ji Ae answered him.
"We were 14, though most of you knew what you were doing, I was different. I just did whatever mom said. One day..."
Throwback to when that happened.
Yeong Hyun and Ji Ae were coming back from school together, walking side by side, talking to each other.
"Why are you coming with me? Where is your car?" Yeong Hyun asked because being the rich girl and for her safety, she always had the car to pick and drop her just like now
"I told them not to come today." Ji Ae answered nonchalantly, unwrapping her lollipop.
"Why?"
"I wanted to go with you. But the same goes with you. Where is your car?" Ji Ae asked him back. I mean, come on everyone, he is also one of the rich students.
"My mom is coming back from grandparents house, she said she will wait by the intersection near our school, so I'm walking till there." He explained, causing Ji Ae to gape.
"Hey, then I'm meeting your mom for the first time!" Believe it or not, being friends from elementary time, she has only met his dad and not his mother, his mother was always busy.
They were now closer to the intersection he mentioned and when he looked at the intersection, his car wasn't there.
"Guess we have to wait." Yeong Hyun said as he kept looking at the spot.
"Actually I don't think so. Look at that, isn't that your car?" Ji Ae asked pointing to a silver long car, coming towards them.
"Yeah, you're right."
The car stopped right in front of them and a woman in a casual luxurious dress, got down and walked towards Yeong Hyun.
"Yeong Hyun!" His mom waved enthusiastically. He waved back with an innocent smile. Her attention then turned to Ji Ae.
"Hello! I'm Yeong Hyun's close friend, Ji Ae Kang! Nice meeting you." She bowed and replied well.
"Oh! Hi sweetie! You never talked about her to me, Yeong Hyun." His mother asked Yeong Hyun. Yeong Hyun just looked at his mother, unable to utter a word.
"So, Ji Ae, you study in Sun Ah too! So..you want to become a...let me guess..a teacher?" His mother bent down to her height and patted her head.
Ji Ae giggled and replied, "No! You guessed it wrong! I want become a stylist." Hearing this from Ji Ae, Yeong Hyun's mother's face darkened. She got away from her slowly. (A/N:This was before Ji Ae changed her dream to actress.)
"A-Ah..stylist.. Cool. Yeong Hyun let's go." She called him to get on the car and went towards the drivers seat.
"See you tomorrow, Ji Ae." Yeong Hyun waved at her. She waved back.
"Bye Mrs.Lim! Get back home safely!" She bowed and his mother looked at her once through her black tinted sunglasses and with a straight face, she started the car.
His mother looked at him through the driving mirror, who was in his phone.
"Yeong Hyun, what kind of person is Ji Ae?" She asked looking through the mirror.
His eyes softened at the mention of her name. He smiled and answered, "Ji Ae, is a ball of sunshine. She has a bright aura wherever she goes. She is kind, good and really talented."
"A-Ah, okay.."
"But mom, I mentioned Ji Ae a few times to you. But why did you tell that I didn't mention her before?"
"You mentioned her? I must have forgotten. But, Yeong Hyun, I hope you don't talk to her." She said out of the blue.
He paused and looked at her innocently.
"Why?"
"She said her dream is stylist."
"Yeah. You even said it was cool."
"Yeong Hyun, you'll listen to me right? Look, if I tell you something it's for your own good."
"But, mom-"
"I know you're asking for the reason. I'll tell you now. Why do you think Ji Ae is friends with you?"
"We've been friends since young. So I'm not sure."
"It's because you are going to become an idol." She buried a poisoned thought in his head. Being the young boy he was, he only listened to whatever his mother told him and did whatever she did. He couldn't bring himself to go against her.
"But I don't-" Not letting him speak, she continued, "Yeong Hyun, you must've told you're a trainee as soon as you were one. And that was when you were 7 years old. Till then, Ji Ae would've been just knowing you as a classmate, but after you must've told her that you were a trainee, she would've clung on to you even more. Believe me or not that's how people are. It's all because you will be famous. Also, a person with a dream of a stylist would love to have someone famous as their friend. So don't be fooled. I'm just telling you this, but I'm not changing my mind about you to not talk to Ji Ae. Did you get it?"
Yeong Hyun just looked dazed. He didn't want to believe this, but at the same time somehow this made sense to him.
"So, what should I do now?" Yeong Hyun asked being confused now.
"Just stop talking to her." His mother told him. He wondered for a bit and remained silent without any answered.
Back to the group.
"You're mom is a real devil." Yu Ah commented.
"I can't believe you blindly listened to what your mother said." Ji Ae sounded disappointed.
"It doesn't end here. After completely not talking to you, I told my mom that you weren't the person she suspected. She said 'oh, okay'. But the next day, I was called for training more earlier than the normal days. I just thought it was because of the evaluations or anything, but it was my mother's plan to send me earlier." He said lowering his head.
"Unbelievable." Ji Ae was even more surprised.
"But, it hurt me to stop talking to you too. I felt guilty."
"If you did feel guilty, you shouldn't have done that later." Ji Ae was angry. She was angry that he listened to his mother talk bad about her and decided to ghost her because of all the crap his mother made up to make them apart.
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Ji Ae. You went through a lot because of me." Yeong Hyun looked into Ji Ae's eyes feeling really sorry, which looked anywhere but him. She sighed and left the campfire.
"Ji Ae-" He tried but Yu Ah interrupted him.
"When I first started being friends with Ji Ae, I never saw her cry. I thought, she actually lived a satisfied and happy life but she indeed was not with all her mother was doing then. That was when I saw her with tear filled eyes for the first time. But, one day, she came to my house. I thought she just wanted to hangout like always, so I don't find anything suspicious. But, as soon as we entered my room, she broke down. She couldn't stop crying. Seeing her cry like that for the first time, I didn't know what to do. She said that she felt guilty but then she didn't do any mistake, she said that it was unfair for you to stop talking without any reason. She kept doubting herself if she wasn't a good friend to you, if she did any mistake, if she did something bad to you. Looking at her like that broke me. The next day at school she acted like everything was okay and as if she didn't cry yesterday and broke down at all. I felt really bad, I wanted to meet you and punch you on the face. For the sake of Ji Ae, I didn't do anything. Now-Hey, Where are you going?!" Without letting Yu Ah finish, he decided to leave the campfire too.
"Where do you think? To Ji Ae, obviously." Seong Seop said the obvious.
"You shut your mouth. You guys knew all this and didn't utter a word to us." Yu Ah bit back at the trio. The three looked like puppies getting scolded.
"It would be better if he himself talked about it." Ha sang stated the better.
"Yeah.."
"You should've at least told us." Yu Ah said again.
"Whatever we might've done, it would still lead it to the current situation. Nothing would change." Yeon Joon mumbled.
"I thought you guys were the reason why he didn't talk to her." Said Bo Young, pointing at the three guys. Yu Ah was confused.
"Us? Why?"
"That's what Ji Ae said the day when he returned. Don't you remember?" Bo Young asked Yu Ah. Yu Ah thought about it for a while.
"Oh right! I remember now." Yu Ah snapped her fingers.
"Why did she say that?"
"Actually, me and Ji Ae assumed the reason about why he didn't talk to her was you guys."
"Wow."
"Well, we thought like that, because a few days after knowing you all were friends with him, he stopped talking to her."
"Well, that makes sense."
"You're so quiet now." Yeon Joon asked staring at Bo Young.
"I just spoke." Bo Young stated laying back on the tiny camping chair.
"Only now. You were silent throughout the talk."
"I didn't want to interrupt." Bo Young said being fed up with him.
"This is why she gives you the cold shoulder." Ha Sang rolled his eyes. Yeon Joon punched him lightly on his arm while the other just laughed.
;-;-;-; ;
When Yeong Hyun followed Ji Ae.
"Hey, did you see Ji Ae?" Yeong Hyun asked to a nearby student. They showed him the directions she went by. He thanked them and went on.
He turned and looked around to find Ji Ae. Though he did go along the direction the student helped him with, he couldn't find her.
When he decided to go look for her in the beach, a teacher stopped him.
"Hey student! Where are you going?" The teacher called out to him. He swiftly ran to the teacher and answered, "I'm going to the beach."
"Oh okay. If you are going somewhere out of the camping site, please inform any of the teacher here and then when you return too. Go and come back safely." The teacher sent him off.
"I will. But, Mr.Kim, did anyone already leave to the beach?" He asked to the teacher.
"I don't know-" Before he could answer, the male trip guide answered.
"Yeah, there was a girl who went to the beach."
"OH, thank you so much." He ran to the beach.
"Sure!"
"Ah.....young love." the two adults sighed.
He found Ji Ae looking at the sea, while her bare feet getting washed by the waves. He was controlling himself from giving her back hug, but didn't want to make her uncomfortable. (A/N: Both are..*sighs*idiots, real idiots.)
He slowly walked towards her. Noticing someone coming behind her, she turned back to look at them. Looking at Yeong Hyun coming towards her, her eyes widened and turned back to the sea again. She definitely didn't want to look at him and scold him for how he hurt her.
"Ji Ae...I really hurt you a lot, didn't I?" He asked looking her from her side. She didn't budge.
"I heard from Yu Ah that you blamed yourself and cried a lot. Im really sorry." He said holding the corner of her sleeve. She brushed it off.
"Ji Ae, ple-" He stopped talking as she finally decided to look at him and speak.
"Yeong Hyun," She looked into his eyes and continued, "I am not going play the 'do what you did to me' act, I'm not that petty. But the fact that you actually believed your mom saying that i was just being friends with you because you were going to be an idol sounds so stupid and it actually hurts that you decided to stop talking to me because of that. Why did you believe all that nonsense?" Her eyes filled with questions.
"I was...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have believed that. Its my fault, I'm sorry."
"Blaming yourself isn't going to work." She said looking at the sea again.
"I'm sorry..Ji Ae. I'm really sorry." He repeated his words again.
She didn't bother to give him a reply.
"Ji Ae, you won't forgive me? Fine, i won't stop apologising until you do. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I'm really sorry,"
"Okay.." She muttered really silently which made him not hear.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,"
"I said okay." She said again but he didn't hear her.
"I'm really sorry, i apologise, i shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry-"
Ji Ae grabbed his face close to hers, looking straight into his eyes, she yelled, "Okay! I said i got it! Now stop apologising!" He just looked at with a surprised face.
Noticing how close his face was with hers, he wanted kiss her but didn't want to take advantage of her. He immediately wrapped his arms around her and pulled her for a hug. She stopped working. Her body was stiff again.
"I'm sorry again and thank you for forgiving me." He mumbled.
"You're my friend after all. And i told you to stop apologising."
He let out a soft chuckle and answered, "Okay...Now aren't you going to hug me back?"
"Nope."
"Come on."
"That being said, why do you keep hugging me these days?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Shouldn't i ask? Because there are so many girls that like you, if they see you hugging me, they'll get angry."
He pulled away and looked at her, gripping her shoulders.
"There are people who like me?" He asked with his eyebrows raised.
She chuckled as she got away from him and held her shoes in her hand, which were lying on the sand.
"Why aren't you answering?"
"Let's go! They'll be waiting."
"Okay!"
;-;-;-;-;-;-;
Chapter-61 end
Bonus:
After the two came back.
"Bo Young, I have a question." Seong Seop started. Everyone turned their attention to him.
"Why do you get scared easily?" Seong Seop asked.
"Yeah! I've seen her like that too." Yu Ah added. Bo Young looked embarrassed.
"But I don't think there would be a backstory to it." Yeon Joon raised a question. Looking at her reaction, they realised that she had a backstory to it.
"Uh..it's kind of embarrassing but I'll tell you guys. I lived in a house before moving in the current apartment. When I lived there, things fell on its own, I heard noises but when I looked into it there was nothing, doors will close on its own and I would hear knocks. When I finally vacated the house, I asked the landlord why it happened because I didn't complain to her once at all. She said that 'I'm not the one who owned this apartment originally, we bought it from someone else. Since you didn't complain a lot, I'm telling you this. The apartment is haunted.' That's what they said. So it kind of traumatised me." She said with an embarrassed smile.
The group looked at her in shock.
"Y-you're really brave for staying in there." Yeon Joon muttered.
"That's right. If I was there, I would've moved away from that place right away."
The group nodded agreeing. But they didn't find it suspicious that she said it from a single person perspective and not as a family perspective as they were immersed in the story more.